coolhunting 

The practise of infiltrating youth cultures in an attempt to understand and predict trends and styles for the purpose of informing corporate product development and marketing.

"I am going coolhunting"

Example 1) Red Bull is reported to have once filled garbage cans near nightclub districts in London with empty redbull cans so that punters would think it is a fashionable new thing.

Example 2) It is reported that coolhunters have been paid to visit night clubs to have conversations that can be overheard about certain products.

Example 3) Brahma Beer from South America recently recruited an "Art Ambassador" and a "Music Ambassador" in my local area, who's job it is to identify cool music/art events that they can offer free beer sponsorship to.

coolhunting by Denormaliser April 8, 2006

Coolhunting

(noun; verb: to coolhunt)

The practice of noticing emerging cultural behaviours, symbols, and communities, understanding what they mean to the people who create them, and translating those insights into commercial or organisational decisions. Unlike traditional market research, coolhunting seeks to understand culture while it is still forming, before its meanings become widely recognised or commercially established.

At its best, coolhunting is an exercise in cultural understanding; at its worst, it reduces living communities to raw material for marketing. The difference lies in whether the observer seeks to learn from a culture or simply extract value from it.

“We thought we were coolhunting for the next running trend; turns out, we were witnessing a quiet rebellion against the idea that everything in life needs to be optimised.”

Coolhunting by Araucaria Angustifolia October 28, 2026

cool-hunting 

When burnt-out 30-somethings cruise the avant-guard art and design scene for young ideas they can exploit shamelessly or otherwise capitalize on as leading executives within the fashion, music, publishing or design industries -- and still feel creative and useful.

She went cool-hunting in Scandinavia for ideas for her design store

cool-hunting by Kim Wyon April 12, 2008